Tag Archives: Stencil

I don’t care what the groundhog predicted—it’s still winter and it will be for a while. What better way to settle in for the winter than with a new mug for coffee/tea/hot cocoa?

Ever since I made the Gothic Raven Mug, I’ve been on a mug stencil kick. I had been tinkering with a potential mug stencil for Valentine’s Day, but it was an epic failure. For one thing, curves are hard for me to cut out nicely with a knife. For another, I tried using glitter craft paint. It looked like dried puffy paint by the time I was done with it-– ick!

I went back to the drawing board and was inspired to try a snowflake stencil instead. Although it was more complex, the straight lines were much easier to cut out with the craft knife. Plus, the craft paint I picked up at Michaels was a glossy enamel that works on wood, glass and ceramics. Score!

DIY Mug Stencil Tutorial

Materials

acrylic paint made for ceramics (I used Americana Gloss Enamels in Calypso blue)

small dish

toothpicks

cotton swabs

ceramic pen (I used Sharpie oil-based paint pen in aqua)

Directions

Lay contact paper down with the shiny side up and tape to a cutting mat or board. Tape snowflake stencil on top of the contact paper. Carefully, using the craft knife, cut out the outline of the image and then delicately punch out the contact paper. This may require some practice.

Clean the mug and wipe down with rubbing alcohol. Next, peel off the contact paper backing and stick on mug, making sure that the stencil is stuck to the mug securely. For this mug, I decided that the blue paint was too pretty to be limited to just the snowflake, so I painted the negative space instead. Using contact paper, I cut out straight strips to frame the snowflake stencil.

Paint the stencil. Since I used a glossy enamel for this project, I brushed with a small paint brush instead of a craft brush and painted in smooth strokes.

Carefully peel stencil and frame from the mug. The stencil will probably not be 100% clean, but that’s OK. Using a combination of toothpicks and cottons swabs dipped in water, scrape off any extraneous paint that got on the snowflake.

To add some whimsy, I wrote a little message on the back of the mug using an oil-based pen from Sharpie. Definitely practice on paper before writing on your mug– this is permanent!

Once done, if you’re using gloss enamel, let the mug air dry for 48 hours. Then, to cure the mug, place mug in a cool oven and heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes. Let mug cool in the oven. Your painted mug is now microwave and dishwasher safe (top rack only).

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered – not a feather then he fluttered
Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before—
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.’
Then the bird said, `Nevermore.’

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It’s multifaceted. On one hand, you have the Disneyfied cuteness of dressing up and going trick-or-treating — a great American childhood ritual. On the other, you have the dark gothic tales of yore. I prefer the latter. Now, I don’t really care for horror movies (except Hitchcock!), but give me a creepy book from the Victorian era anytime. I’m thinking of stories like Uncle Silas, FrankensteinandA Rose for Emily.

So what could be better than to curl up and read a dark tale with a steaming cup of tea? I know — how about a cup with a stenciled raven that you made yourself?

I’ve been seeing some really cute, Anthropologie-looking, stenciled mugs on Pinterest lately, (like this one from The 36th Avenue) and it inspired me to give it a try. However, I didn’t really like the stencils I found in craft stores. So, how do you make your own custom stencil? Not that long ago, I found a video from Lowe’s (below) that shows a step-by-step tutorial on how to create your own stencil using contact paper. Genius!

I found that using contact paper to stencil on a mug was especially great since the stencil could mold around the curve of the mug. Below are directions on how to make your own stenciled mug. If you’d like to use the raven stencil that I created, you can download it for free here.

DIY Mug Stencil Tutorial

Materials

mug

peel and stick contact paper

tape

craft knife

stencil brush

acrylic paint made for ceramics (I used Plaid Folk Art Enamel)

small dish

toothpick

Directions

Lay contact paper down with the shiny side up and tape to a cutting mat or board. Tape image or drawing that you want to stencil on top of the contact paper. Carefully, using the craft knife, cut out the outline of the image and then delicately punch out the contact paper. This may require some practice.

Clean the mug and wipe down with rubbing alcohol. Next, peel off the contact paper backing and stick on mug, making sure that the stencil is stuck to the mug securely.

In a small dish, squirt a small amount of acrylic paint. Before painting the mug, you may want to practice painting a stencil on a piece of paper first. Lightly dip brush into paint and tap off any excess. Then paint the stencil by pouncing, or tapping the flat top of the brush, on the mug. This will give you an even finish.

Carefully peel the stencil from the mug.

Don’t worry if the stencil outline isn’t completely crisp. You can use a toothpick to even out the edges while the paint is still wet.

When you have finished tidying up the stencil, let the paint air-dry for an hour. Follow the directions on the acrylic paint bottle to cure the mug. If you are using Folk Art Enamel, place mug on a cookie sheet in a cool oven that is not pre-heated. Turn on the oven and heat to 350 degrees. After the oven has reached 350, bake mug for 30 minutes. Then turn off heat and keep the mug in the oven until it has cooled completely. Now the mug is microwaveable and dishwasher safe (top rack).